Sunday, January 29, 2012
How Do We Identify Good Ideas?
Wired.com: I’ve always been fascinated by the failures of genius. Consider Bob Dylan. How did the same songwriter who produced Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde also conclude that Down in the Groove was worthy of release? Or what about Steve Jobs: What did he possibly see in the hockey puck mouse? How could Bono not realize that Spiderman was a disaster? And why have so many of my favorite novelists produced so many middling works?
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4 comments:
Being able to pick out your best ideas is a hugely important part of any design process. I was surprised that being distracted (while letting your subconscious mind ruminate on it) made this study group almost twice as likely to pinpoint their best ideas. A good detail to remember though, is that each group had roughly the same quality of ideas; the difference lies in their ability to recognize the best ones. So, the same outcome could probably come around by having a friend (or members of your design team) offer their own opinions on your ideas before you choose the best ones to pursue.
At any rate, it's lovely to have a valid excuse for doing something mindless that makes me happy before starting an assignment.
Though its nice to know that it's helpful to take mental breaks during projects, in real life, one is not necessarily allotted that extra time. It's easy for me to burn out quickly when I'm stuck doing one thing for a long time. There's also the danger (as this article explains) that if I'm too focused on one project, I won't have the distance to recognize what's a good idea and what's a bad idea. The solution I've found isn't to take complete breaks, but rather to switch between projects frequently. Not only does this help give me much needed distance and let my subconscious evaluate my ideas, it also helps to "chunk" projects into sections.
I completely agree with the tips in this article. Taking breaks and not getting too caught up in a single project are indisputably great approaches to producing better quality of work. The part of this article that I'm dubious of is the study data. While I understand there to be some validity in this type of research, in such an environment, who's really to say which ideas are better than others. There are so many variable factors which present a major flaw. I just can't fathom how one could judge that in a study situation. I'm not saying that I disagree with the article at large, but I really can't put too much trust in the studies.
I think that part of becoming an artist is knowing when things are wrong and when they are right. I think that it takes time and effort to understand when ideas are good and when they could use a little bit of work. It is okay to be really in a project but also one must not get so caught up that you don't know how to look at the end product objectively. I think though ultimately if you produce enough work you can get to something that is great. But it is tough to go through this process of creating something great so to do so so many times is hard, people get lazy, or just all of the good press goes to their head.
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